Lisa Prince – Google

im surprised that i never thought of this book when i was taking PSYCHOLOGY OF ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR in the 90s. Noelle Paige would have been a perfect criteria outline for the Dark Triad….psychopath, narcissist, and Machiavellism. it was a chilling journey into the mind of a sadistic psychopath who had zero empathy even for her own unborn child. who felt she deserved everything that she wanted and would obliterate everything that stood in her path.

It was really impossible to empathize with Hillary Swank's Juliet as a sympathetic victim. The only one in this movie who appeared to be normal and had their act together was her black friend Sydney I think...from work. Everyone else...ESPECIALLY Juliet...were neurotic unstable dysfunctional messes. Max's grandfather showed that the root doesnt fall far from the tree. His emotional/abuse of his grandson and his own desperation for company as shown with Juliet when she thanked him for the gift made it pretty evident that when he berated his grandson for perversion he was actually talking about himself. That's why he hated him. Juliet....im sorry....she was a trainwreck. I dont think her ex's infidelity was the only reason her relationship went south. She was clearly unstable. What woman comes onto her landlord...her landlord of all people like gangbusters...practically rapes him...then goes into this weird rant....while nearly naked....about her exes touch and smell oh I cant do this I'm so sorry. Then later when confronted about her behavior seemed to have no real understanding of how her actions affected other people. Oh it's just what people do. I also noticed that when Max began drugging and raping her that it took FOUR TIMES before she picked up that she might have been drugged. I can tell you exactly why...throughout the movie I picked up she had developed a noticeable problem with her drinking. A nondrinker or an occasional drinker would have picked up the 1st time that she had been drugged and did bloodwork then. But she waited 4 times??? I think it was due to the fact that she couldn't tell if it was she had been drugged or was just hungover. And she didnt notice TRACKMARKS?? And her friend Sydney...if you noticed...wasnt sympathetic towards Juliet's Juliet's situation. There wasnt any ARE YOU ALRIGHT? It was YOUVE BEEN LATE FOUR OTHER TIMES ALREADY. And her dismissal of Juliet's concerns with a flippant GET A NEW ALARM...this wasnt the 1st time juliet had been in trouble with similar incidents. Her friends had been down that road with her before. And her drinking probably had a lot to do with why her ex began looking elsewhere. And he was still clearly hung up on her and most likely had done most of the work in the relationship. Her drinking was beginning to cause her significant problems. It had before. And would get her into more trouble than it already had. Juliet was self absorbed unstable in alot of denial and just didnt appeal to my sympathies as a victim. While I was glad Max didnt kill her and felt bad that her ex was the unwitting victim here...as you see unfolding the type of person that she was it wasn't hard to see this coming. And of course it never occurred to her that anything she did had anything to do with what happened to her. With her type it almost NEVER does. The performances by Hillary Swank Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Christopher Lee were the main reason I gave this movie a 3 rating. I'm sorry but I was more mortified by the heroines blindness to her own life unraveling than I was terrified by unhinged Max.

Readers digest version: amongst the rich elite sociopathy appears to be hereditary. And dont think it was love that motivated mommy to kill for her boy. REPUTATION AND IMAGE means more to a sociopath than their CHILDREN. Her boy got her bad Gene's. I'm sure Daddy grew up hypervigilant in that house. Matty McCoughnahay nailed his bad boy lawyer going clean role. Macy plugs away as the pit bull tenacity PI. Marisa Tomei is like fine wine that just keeps improving with age. Ryan Phillippe and Frances Fisher pair nicely as the evil mother son combo though only actually seen together once. Her murdering Levin and attempting to kill Haller showed she was quite comfy with taking care of her obstacles and the contempt that the elite have for us everyday folk.